Episode 138: Taking Prescription Medications, Fasting to Heal Insulin Resistance, When to See Your Doctor, and More

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast
<v Speaker 1>Feast Repeat.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health and
<v Speaker 2>wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast is
<v Speaker 2>for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended
<v Speaker 2>to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are
<v Speaker 2>not doctors, so make sure to check with your trusted
<v Speaker 2>healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
<v Speaker 2>any medical treatments or medications.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
<v Speaker 1>tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
<v Speaker 1>to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
<v Speaker 1>are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
<v Speaker 1>episode of the Fast Feast Repeat, Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
<v Speaker 1>How are you doing Today's sharing?
<v Speaker 2>I'm doing greats. I have good news.
<v Speaker 1>Oh what's your good news?
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know, ever since COVID, I've struggled to get
<v Speaker 2>COVID weight gain off and I've been working really, really hard,
<v Speaker 2>and my doctor congratulated me at the doctor earlier today
<v Speaker 2>he said, I was down sixteen pounds since he saw
<v Speaker 2>me last. And it's wintertime, so that last time I
<v Speaker 2>saw him was summertime. So I'm trying not to like
<v Speaker 2>obsess and really watch my weight. In fact, I can't
<v Speaker 2>even tell you what a wait today. I just keep
<v Speaker 2>watching my graph, right, so I guess my graph keeps
<v Speaker 2>going down. That's all I'm focusing on.
<v Speaker 1>And we've heard this story from a lot of people
<v Speaker 1>that whether it was long COVID or something related to
<v Speaker 1>the COVID shot, people saw weight gain after listen.
<v Speaker 2>I probably I would say eight of my coaching clients
<v Speaker 2>have the exact same story, and that is, after they
<v Speaker 2>were had their vaccination, their body something changed in it
<v Speaker 2>and they started regaining weight and they've been struggling to
<v Speaker 2>get it off. So there's something to it. I don't
<v Speaker 2>know what it is. I believe it one hundred percent.
<v Speaker 2>Their story mirrors my story. And as soon as they
<v Speaker 2>start talking and telling me what's going on, I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>I know exactly what they're going to tell me.
<v Speaker 1>And we also hear this with people who have long
<v Speaker 1>COVID something something I feel like the so similar. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>And so you know when you think about it, if
<v Speaker 1>your body is making spike protein and that is causing
<v Speaker 1>your body to hold onto inflammation or to hold on
<v Speaker 1>to the weight, whatever it might be, whether it's blood
<v Speaker 1>sugar dysregulation, higher insulin because of it, or whatever. You know,
<v Speaker 1>we've heard lots of theories. Yeah, I'm actually in a
<v Speaker 1>long COVID group and there's a lot of like new
<v Speaker 1>research being shared in there. It's really interesting. And I
<v Speaker 1>bring it up because there's all these people think that
<v Speaker 1>they're doing something wrong or that maybe fasting doesn't work
<v Speaker 1>for them anymore. And I don't that's I don't think
<v Speaker 1>that's it.
<v Speaker 2>When you look and everything was going well, and you'd
<v Speaker 2>lost weight with intermittent fasting and you were maintaining your weight,
<v Speaker 2>and then this is the one variable that was introduced
<v Speaker 2>and suddenly everything changes. There's definitely a correlation there. So,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, just the one girl I talked to you
<v Speaker 2>last week felt so much better just knowing that she
<v Speaker 2>wasn't the only one that had this experience, right, So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I hope somebody somewhere dives into this and the metabolic
<v Speaker 2>leftover metabolic implications from you know, COVID and all of
<v Speaker 2>this and comes up with some way to help people
<v Speaker 2>heal that. I don't know. I think we're ways off
<v Speaker 2>from that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Yeah, the whole spike protein thing was a novel
<v Speaker 1>kind of a thing, right, They told us that over
<v Speaker 1>and over again. So with something novel and something new,
<v Speaker 1>new technology, it isn't surprising that we'll have unexpected consequences
<v Speaker 1>from something new that we haven't seen before. So just
<v Speaker 1>really think back, when did things change for me? Was
<v Speaker 1>it right after you had COVID? That might be your
<v Speaker 1>aha moment? Yep?
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, we have a celebration from Lourie from Maine.
<v Speaker 2>She said, I've been fasting now for two years and
<v Speaker 2>I've lost nearly fifty pounds. My biggest victory, though, has
<v Speaker 2>been in my attitude towards myself. I have spent most
<v Speaker 2>of my life hating my body. I have so often
<v Speaker 2>fallen into the trap of comparing myself to others and
<v Speaker 2>wishing that things were different for me. Somewhere along the
<v Speaker 2>line in recent months, that has changed through my continued
<v Speaker 2>commitment to IF and the amazing community of support that
<v Speaker 2>I am part of. I truly do love and appreciate
<v Speaker 2>my body. Now I feel so much more positive and
<v Speaker 2>I've been willing to put myself out into the dating world.
<v Speaker 2>Even life is so good right now, I'm not in
<v Speaker 2>a hurry for quick results because I know that changes
<v Speaker 2>are happening and I will get there. Thank you, Jen
<v Speaker 2>and Cherry and the amazing community that you have cultivated.
<v Speaker 1>I love that so much. You're down fifty pounds, but
<v Speaker 1>your biggest victory is your attitude towards yourself and also
<v Speaker 1>stop comparing yourself to others.
<v Speaker 2>That is huge.
<v Speaker 1>So many of us fall in that trap. Yep, well
<v Speaker 1>she did X y Z. Why can't I do that too?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Well, I mean, and when I was reading that,
<v Speaker 2>I was thinking, I remember being in second grade and
<v Speaker 2>sitting and you know, as a kid, you always sat
<v Speaker 2>up on your knees.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I did, with.
<v Speaker 2>Your feet tucked underneath you, underneath your bottom, and of
<v Speaker 2>course that makes your thighs spread. And I remember being
<v Speaker 2>in second grade and looking over at these other girls
<v Speaker 2>who had these skinny little legs and nobby little knees.
<v Speaker 2>And I've always had sick knees. And I remember thinking
<v Speaker 2>in second grade, why can't I have sin legs like theirs? So,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I don't even think that's a taught thing
<v Speaker 2>to compare yourself to.
<v Speaker 1>We just do it naturally.
<v Speaker 2>We just do it naturally.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So now we have a question from a listener.
<v Speaker 1>This question is from Marcia in Cincinnati, Ohio. I am
<v Speaker 1>seventy years old and I've been fasting since December of
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty. Thank you both for all of the help
<v Speaker 1>and information that you provide. I'm sorry if this question
<v Speaker 1>has been answered, but I don't remember hearing about it.
<v Speaker 1>I have been diagnosed with osteoporosis. I currently take Fosamax.
<v Speaker 1>Is that how you say it? Fossom X Yeah, Alan
<v Speaker 1>droneite sodium. Is that how you say that? I'm not
<v Speaker 1>I know I it don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Fossom max is inly way. I know it?
<v Speaker 1>Okay, once a week. It is to be taken on
<v Speaker 1>an empty stomach, and I take it on Monday mornings
<v Speaker 1>fasted first thing when I wake up. Does this break
<v Speaker 1>my fast?
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna tell you the same advice we tell everybody
<v Speaker 2>who is on prescription medication, and that is please take
<v Speaker 2>it as directed. It has to be thinking on empty stomach,
<v Speaker 2>so you have to take it on empty stomach, right.
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't worry about it beyond that. I don't think
<v Speaker 2>it's gonna do anything that's going to cause you to
<v Speaker 2>have some drastic insulin response and feel unwell. If you
<v Speaker 2>experience that, the only thing I would say is maybe wait,
<v Speaker 2>like find out how long you have to take it
<v Speaker 2>before eating, and if it's like two hours, then maybe
<v Speaker 2>just take it two hours before your window starts. But
<v Speaker 2>if you're not noticing any ill effects from it, just
<v Speaker 2>carry on.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely. Yeah. And you know one other thing about any medication, right,
<v Speaker 1>you can talk to your doctor and tell them that
<v Speaker 1>you're fasting and they may have a different recommendation about
<v Speaker 1>when to take it. But if not, you take it
<v Speaker 1>as prescribed. You always pharmacist a lot.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, pharmacists are gonna know more about like exactly
<v Speaker 2>which foods have to be taken with food, which ones
<v Speaker 2>have to be taken away from food medications.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, definitely, you know, have
<v Speaker 1>this conversation with your doctor, have this conversation with your pharmacist.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, sometimes we have to even if it
<v Speaker 1>did break us fast, sometimes you have to do it right.
<v Speaker 1>It's just it is what it is.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, Oh it does. I just looked it up while
<v Speaker 2>we were talking thirty minutes before you eat or drink
<v Speaker 2>anything or take any other medication. If you were to
<v Speaker 2>do not eat or drink anything other than plain water.
<v Speaker 2>So if you were to feel unwill well or anything,
<v Speaker 2>you could always just take it before opening or eating window. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>thirty minutes, thirty minutes before. All right, So our next
<v Speaker 2>question is from Susie and Alberta. Hi, jenn and Cherry.
<v Speaker 2>I love your podcast and I've learned so much from
<v Speaker 2>you both. I have been overweight or obese all my life,
<v Speaker 2>and in my twenties and into my thirties gained more
<v Speaker 2>and more weight being pregnant and then nursing for baby.
<v Speaker 2>At my highest non pregnancy weight this year, I weighed
<v Speaker 2>two hundred and twenty two pounds, and I decided it
<v Speaker 2>was time to change something. I got your book Fast
<v Speaker 2>Fees Repeat, and I started ADF right after my thirty
<v Speaker 2>third birthday in August of twenty twenty five. Now it's
<v Speaker 2>mid December of twenty twenty five and I have lost
<v Speaker 2>thirty five pounds. I almost cannot even believe it. It
<v Speaker 2>has felt so effortless compared to other methods I have
<v Speaker 2>tried to lose weight that never worked. I am so
<v Speaker 2>so happy to have found IF and that it's working
<v Speaker 2>for me, and it's so easy. I have about forty
<v Speaker 2>pounds to go to reach my goal weight of one
<v Speaker 2>hundred and fifty pounds. I am five six, and I
<v Speaker 2>would like to get to at least one fifty or
<v Speaker 2>maybe even one forty. My only problem is black coffee.
<v Speaker 2>I've always liked my coffee with cream. I add about
<v Speaker 2>three tablespoons of cream to my large mug of coffee
<v Speaker 2>every morning, just regular eighteen percent cream, nothing sweet or flavored.
<v Speaker 2>I tried for a month to drink up black and
<v Speaker 2>I just can't do it. I've tried different kinds of coffee,
<v Speaker 2>making it less strong, instant coffee, adding a bit of salt,
<v Speaker 2>and I just don't like black coffee. After a month
<v Speaker 2>of that, I went back to cream in my coffee
<v Speaker 2>in the morning, and I continue to lose weight just
<v Speaker 2>like before. My question is could my creamy coffee in
<v Speaker 2>the morning count as the five hundred calorie meal on
<v Speaker 2>my down days. My coffee isn't five hundred calories, obviously,
<v Speaker 2>But since I'm losing weight and fasting is easy, I
<v Speaker 2>think I'm just looking for confirmation that this is okay,
<v Speaker 2>other than cream in my one mug of coffee in
<v Speaker 2>the morning, I drink only water during my fast. On
<v Speaker 2>my eating days, I eat whatever I want, usually not
<v Speaker 2>super healthy, but I'm working on proving my diet and
<v Speaker 2>getting rid of highly processed food. Anyway, thank you for
<v Speaker 2>all you do, and happy fasting everyone.
<v Speaker 1>All Right, So the first thing I want to say
<v Speaker 1>is I want everyone to be really, really cautious with
<v Speaker 1>this statement. Well, I'm still losing weight, so it must
<v Speaker 1>be working. That is a slippery, slow, dangerous path to
<v Speaker 1>go down. Well, I'm still losing weight, so it's got
<v Speaker 1>to be it's got to be fun. No, when we're fasting,
<v Speaker 1>we want to fast clean. Okay. So here's where it
<v Speaker 1>gets a tiny bit tricky, and that is that you've
<v Speaker 1>got a down day and you want to have your
<v Speaker 1>down day quote meal be your one mug of creamy coffee. Technically,
<v Speaker 1>I guess you could write yes if you technically decide
<v Speaker 1>my down day meal is going to be this one
<v Speaker 1>mug of coffee, and I'm going to have it in
<v Speaker 1>a very short period of time and then I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to fast clean. Technically, I mean, your five hundred calorie
<v Speaker 1>meal could be eggs and sausage, or five hundred calorie
<v Speaker 1>meal could be a salad, or five hundred calorie meal
<v Speaker 1>could be a beverage. Technically, personally, I wouldn't do it.
<v Speaker 1>I would just have water. If I could not make
<v Speaker 1>myself drink the black coffee, I would just have water
<v Speaker 1>and give yourself a caffeine pill if you've got to
<v Speaker 1>have the caffeine. Maybe I would fast personally, though I
<v Speaker 1>would not be satisfied from a beverage of any sort,
<v Speaker 1>or even a morning Downday meal. That wouldn't work for me,
<v Speaker 1>So I wouldn't recommend that. And again I want to
<v Speaker 1>caution everybody on the you know the statement, well, I'm
<v Speaker 1>still losing weight, so it must be working. Remember, intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting is about a lot more of what's going on
<v Speaker 1>on the inside than just what your scale is doing.
<v Speaker 2>Right, And I want to throw in there too, So
<v Speaker 2>she's only about what you wrote in maybe about four
<v Speaker 2>months into this. You know, the more insulin sensitive you
<v Speaker 2>become through fasting, the more response of your body is
<v Speaker 2>going to become too. Little things that do break the fast,
<v Speaker 2>and over time, drinking that mug of creamy coffee could
<v Speaker 2>absolutely affect you in a negative way based off of
<v Speaker 2>whether it's increased hunger during the fast, or if it
<v Speaker 2>causes you to have a drop in blood sugar that
<v Speaker 2>makes you feel unwell. And so my concern when people
<v Speaker 2>are doing things like this is if they were to
<v Speaker 2>go out and drive their vehicle and have a blood
<v Speaker 2>sugar crash because they broke their fast with something that's
<v Speaker 2>not clean fast compliant, that could be dangerous for them.
<v Speaker 2>So that's just something I'd like you to keep in
<v Speaker 2>the back of your mind, is that when you wake
<v Speaker 2>up and you have this, you may think, oh, it's
<v Speaker 2>just cream. I'm not going to have an insulin response
<v Speaker 2>to it.
<v Speaker 1>You do have an insulin response to cream, you do, yeah.
<v Speaker 2>And so you may not feel the effects now, but
<v Speaker 2>three months from now, six months from now, you could
<v Speaker 2>absolutely feel the effects from it.
<v Speaker 1>Right all right, now, it is time for our segment
<v Speaker 1>called What's Your Why, And most of us begin interimatet
<v Speaker 1>and fasting with weight loss in mind. I did, Sherry did.
<v Speaker 1>That's normal, But there's so much more to what intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fast do for us beyond weight loss. I believe that
<v Speaker 1>when you have a powerful why statement that is deeper
<v Speaker 1>than weight loss alone, you're more likely to find long
<v Speaker 1>term success and view intermitt and fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>So this week we have a y from Sinandy in
<v Speaker 2>the Star City and I was gonna.
<v Speaker 1>Look that up, but I don't know. I'll look it
<v Speaker 1>up while you're talking.
<v Speaker 2>Can you tell Jenna and I are questioners?
<v Speaker 1>We are.
<v Speaker 2>I want to be as healthy as I can be
<v Speaker 2>as I age. I have two young grandchildren and I
<v Speaker 2>want to be healthy and strong to be there for them.
<v Speaker 2>I truly wish I would have discovered intermittent fasting thirty
<v Speaker 2>years ago, but I am very happy to have found
<v Speaker 2>Jen's book Fast Piece. Repeat, Now, what did you learn
<v Speaker 2>about the Star City?
<v Speaker 1>Okay? Well, there's two things when I googled it, Okay.
<v Speaker 1>First of all, Star City most commonly refers to the
<v Speaker 1>Yuri Gargaran Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia, which is a
<v Speaker 1>town or Moscow, and I doubt that's it.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think that's it.
<v Speaker 1>No, But I also found Roanoke, Virginia is called the
<v Speaker 1>star City of the South, so maybe you're from Virginia. Well,
<v Speaker 1>there is a big star I remember that now, but
<v Speaker 1>we didn't call it Star City, so I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>And then there's my husband who doesn't think Virginia is
<v Speaker 2>a southern state.
<v Speaker 1>What what's wrong with him?
<v Speaker 2>He doesn't consider North Carolina Virginia to be southern states.
<v Speaker 1>Huh, well he's wrong.
<v Speaker 2>I like, I've had to look it up. Well, so
<v Speaker 2>if you look up Deep South, it's not considered part
<v Speaker 2>of the Deep South. Well that's different. It's true, however,
<v Speaker 2>Texas is. But he doesn't consider Texas to be from
<v Speaker 2>the south either. My husband apparently has his own definition
<v Speaker 2>map and definition the Alabama.
<v Speaker 1>We know Florida is not a large state.
<v Speaker 2>Well, see, if you look some maps, it as a
<v Speaker 2>southern state and this does not. It's so funny, it
<v Speaker 2>is funny. S all right, Well, so we have a
<v Speaker 2>question from Kathy S from New Hampshire. She wrote, I
<v Speaker 2>started fasting in twenty twenty two after reading Jen's book.
<v Speaker 2>I successfully lost thirty three pounds at age seventy eight.
<v Speaker 1>Wow.
<v Speaker 2>I fell off the wagon after meeting another widower and
<v Speaker 2>have been steadily climbing back up on the scale. Even
<v Speaker 2>though I do two or three days of a nineteen
<v Speaker 2>to twenty hour fast, I'm still gaining and I'm starting
<v Speaker 2>to feel desperate. That fasting no longer works for me.
<v Speaker 2>My why is, along with weight loss, I want to
<v Speaker 2>gain back my motivation that I felt when I was thinner.
<v Speaker 2>I feel sluggish, not very healthy, and totally unmotivated. Can
<v Speaker 2>you help?
<v Speaker 1>Well, there's part of this that puzzles me, and that
<v Speaker 1>is when you say, Kathy, even though I do two
<v Speaker 1>or three days of an nineteen or twenty hour fast,
<v Speaker 1>I'm still gaining. So I think that it's super important
<v Speaker 1>that we're looking long term and not just two or
<v Speaker 1>three days at a time. And I'm not really sure
<v Speaker 1>if you're like trying it for two or three days
<v Speaker 1>and weighing every day and your weight's going up, and
<v Speaker 1>then you quit and then later that.
<v Speaker 2>She's only maybe doing two or three days a week
<v Speaker 2>of nineteen to twenty hour fasting. That's how iret.
<v Speaker 1>And then what is she doing the other day? Right, So,
<v Speaker 1>whatever it is, either you're doing it for two or
<v Speaker 1>three days and then you quit, or you're doing two
<v Speaker 1>or three days a week and that's all. Neither of
<v Speaker 1>those would be what we would recommend for weight loss,
<v Speaker 1>because you're not going to be metabolically flexible, you're not
<v Speaker 1>going to be fat adapted and Here's what I want
<v Speaker 1>you to do, Kathy. I would like, first of all,
<v Speaker 1>congratulations about meeting someone else and being in a happy relationship.
<v Speaker 1>I think that is awesome. But here's what I want
<v Speaker 1>you to do. I want you to get a copy
<v Speaker 1>of twenty eight day Fast Start day by day. I
<v Speaker 1>want you to begin twenty eight days. I'll get the paperback.
<v Speaker 1>I want you to begin as if you have never
<v Speaker 1>fasted before, and you are brand new and you've never
<v Speaker 1>done it. Okay, start at the beginning. Craft your why,
<v Speaker 1>and I know you said your why is gaining back
<v Speaker 1>motivation and you don't want to feel sluggish anymore. You
<v Speaker 1>may even find other things. There's a list of suggested
<v Speaker 1>why statements in twenty eight day fast Start Day by day.
<v Speaker 1>I bet you'll be able to check out a check
<v Speaker 1>off a bunch of them, and so begin following. I
<v Speaker 1>would probably start with the middle of the road approach,
<v Speaker 1>not the rip off the band aid, but the one
<v Speaker 1>in the middle. Choose the one in the middle. I
<v Speaker 1>think that's called steady build and follow that and do
<v Speaker 1>it as written. Don't try to do more, and do
<v Speaker 1>not do less. We're not going to do it for
<v Speaker 1>two or three days We're going to follow it as
<v Speaker 1>written for all of those twenty eight days. You're not
<v Speaker 1>going to start and stop. You're not going to do
<v Speaker 1>it a few days a week. You're gonna do it.
<v Speaker 1>You're going to build it up over those twenty eight days.
<v Speaker 1>And the most important thing, Kathy, you're gonna put the
<v Speaker 1>scale away completely. Now. My advice for you, as someone
<v Speaker 1>who's seventy eight and wanting to enjoy your.
<v Speaker 2>Life, we feel better eighty one now.
<v Speaker 1>Oh she's eighty one now, Okay, at the age of
<v Speaker 1>eighty one, and you're wanting to enjoy your life and
<v Speaker 1>feel better. You wanted to not feel sluggish, you want
<v Speaker 1>to feel healthy. I would throw the scale in the
<v Speaker 1>garbage forever. I mean, I haven't weighed since twenty seventeen
<v Speaker 1>and I am only fifty six. But it feels like
<v Speaker 1>freedom to not know what that scale number is doing
<v Speaker 1>and not have to stress about it. So throw the
<v Speaker 1>scale away one hundred percent forever forever. Get into a
<v Speaker 1>rhythm that feels good, so that you don't feel sluggish,
<v Speaker 1>so that you do feel healthy, and that you feel
<v Speaker 1>motivated to continue. That's what I would do if I
<v Speaker 1>were you. Honestly, what do you have to add to that, Sherry.
<v Speaker 2>I agree, and you know I do want to say
<v Speaker 2>at your age, I really would advise you to speak
<v Speaker 2>to your health health care practitioner ask them if they
<v Speaker 2>feel it is safe for you to try to lose
<v Speaker 2>weight at your age, because more and more longevity experts
<v Speaker 2>are saying that people really shouldn't attempt to lose weight
<v Speaker 2>really like over the age of I think they use
<v Speaker 2>seventy two. Really yes, unless somebody is like morbidly obese,
<v Speaker 2>unless they need to take off weight for joint health,
<v Speaker 2>mobility issues, that sort of thing. So just knowing that information,
<v Speaker 2>I would just have a brief conversation with your doctor, nurse, practitioner,
<v Speaker 2>whoever you see, and just let them know that you
<v Speaker 2>would like to take some weight off, ask them if
<v Speaker 2>they have any issue with that. And then rather than
<v Speaker 2>focusing on the scale, start focusing on your stamina and
<v Speaker 2>how you feel, and how do you feel after eating,
<v Speaker 2>and are you staying active to the best of your ability,
<v Speaker 2>because that's going to be really really important.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe an eight hour window, is it's right for you, Kathy,
<v Speaker 1>maybe eight hours every day, I think that's at a
<v Speaker 1>great idea. Sure to talk to her doctor or her
<v Speaker 1>health practitioner. If you're in the healthy weight range already,
<v Speaker 1>then you definitely don't want to lose more weight at
<v Speaker 1>eighty one, right, without a doubt. Go to smart BMI
<v Speaker 1>and put your stats in there. Smart bm I just
<v Speaker 1>google that and it'll help you find it, because age
<v Speaker 1>is a real factor. All right. Our next question is
<v Speaker 1>from Andrea. My question is about insulin resistance. In the
<v Speaker 1>Obesity Code, doctor Phark says that you need to fast
<v Speaker 1>twenty four to thirty six hours to heal insulin resistance.
<v Speaker 1>Guess what, Andrea, I'm just gonna skip to the chase
<v Speaker 1>and say that is not true. You do not need
<v Speaker 1>to do that. So I mean, I'm gonna be the
<v Speaker 1>rest of it, but you absolutely do not need to
<v Speaker 1>fast twenty four to thirty six hours to heal insulin resistance.
<v Speaker 1>In fact, I'm gonna say something that might shock you.
<v Speaker 1>Someone could not be an intermittent faster at all and
<v Speaker 1>do zero internetten fasting and heal insulin resistance through dietitary
<v Speaker 1>dietary choices, lifestyle choices. So we know that it doesn't
<v Speaker 1>even make sense to think that only fasting for twenty
<v Speaker 1>four to thirty six hours would heal insulin resistance, So
<v Speaker 1>get that out of your mind completely. And of course
<v Speaker 1>I don't have the obesity code in front of me.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure that he said it that specifically, because
<v Speaker 1>that doesn't sound like something he would say that you
<v Speaker 1>can only heal insult resistance if you fast twenty four
<v Speaker 1>to thirty six hours.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I don't recall that being any kind of absolute.
<v Speaker 1>No, no, So yeah, I would get that out of
<v Speaker 1>your mind. We've got plenty of people who have healed
<v Speaker 1>their insulin resistance with a daily eating window, or they're
<v Speaker 1>doing like a nineteen five, or again someone who's not
<v Speaker 1>fasting at all, who's just making different food choices, all
<v Speaker 1>all those different things we can do, all right, So
<v Speaker 1>Andrea says, I clean fast anywhere from seventeen to twenty
<v Speaker 1>three hours. I open my window daily for five hours.
<v Speaker 1>Time of day varies depending on plans. So again she's
<v Speaker 1>asking me if she should start doing mealis Monday, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm just gonna say, no, you don't need to switch
<v Speaker 1>up what you're doing. If you are meeting your goals
<v Speaker 1>with a daily five hour window, then keep doing that.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want you to think that you have to
<v Speaker 1>do more that you have to do mealis Monday's or ADF.
<v Speaker 1>So she goes on to say, overall, I'm doing great.
<v Speaker 1>I'm feeling great. I'm experiencing lots of non scale victories.
<v Speaker 1>My clothes are fitting so much better, my skin is
<v Speaker 1>clear and bright. So I guess I'm just wondering if
<v Speaker 1>I really should be fasting longer to heal my insulin resistance.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for all you do and for all the
<v Speaker 1>questions you answer. Y'all are truly amazing, and we love
<v Speaker 1>doing it.
<v Speaker 2>Andrea, Yeah, and I feel like you already answered your
<v Speaker 2>own question. Yeah, you are experiencing non scale victories, your
<v Speaker 2>clothes are fitting better, your skin is clear and bright,
<v Speaker 2>You're losing weight, so you're already healing your insulin resistant.
<v Speaker 2>And if you have any doubt of what's happening, get
<v Speaker 2>yourself a fasting insulin. It's going to say fasting glucose
<v Speaker 2>done simultaneously. Those are the two tests you need done simultaneously,
<v Speaker 2>and then you can calculate your homa IR score and
<v Speaker 2>you can see what your level of insulin resistance is
<v Speaker 2>if you had it done prior. You can see how
<v Speaker 2>much has changed if you haven't had it done. Prior
<v Speaker 2>get it done. See where you're at. If your insular
<v Speaker 2>resistance score is great, you can stop stressing about it completely.
<v Speaker 2>If there's still some work to do, then basically that
<v Speaker 2>would tell me that you need to make some maybe
<v Speaker 2>dietaria lifestyle changes as well as you're fasting, if you're
<v Speaker 2>wanting to really push through and get that remedy quickly.
<v Speaker 2>But there's also people who just fast every single day
<v Speaker 2>and keep a five hour eating window and they get
<v Speaker 2>their home IRO score into the optimal zone. That's me
<v Speaker 2>so you don't have to do extreme fasting to heal
<v Speaker 2>your body.
<v Speaker 1>Right, And again Sheerry mentioned these that I'm gonna saym
<v Speaker 1>again because people always are like, what did you say?
<v Speaker 1>I missed it. So it's fasting insulin and fasting glucose
<v Speaker 1>done at the same time. And then go to Google
<v Speaker 1>and type in homa ir, homa homa ir, and there
<v Speaker 1>are calculators and they show you what those ranges mean,
<v Speaker 1>what your number means. So if you get it done
<v Speaker 1>and then maybe repeated in six months and your number
<v Speaker 1>is not better, maybe you do need to do some
<v Speaker 1>adf because if your insulin is really really high and
<v Speaker 1>you're significantly insulin resistant in your diet hasn't been the best.
<v Speaker 1>Someone maybe who's been obese for like decage, which can happen.
<v Speaker 1>You may need to do more, but that doesn't mean
<v Speaker 1>you have to do more. So have the data to
<v Speaker 1>see if you need to or not. So I'm not
<v Speaker 1>going to say that there are some people who don't
<v Speaker 1>need to do some more fasting, right. There may be,
<v Speaker 1>but to make a blank get statement that everyone can
<v Speaker 1>only heal insulin resistance if they fast twenty four to
<v Speaker 1>thirty six hours just isn't going to be true.
<v Speaker 2>As I say, my thought with doctor Funk too is
<v Speaker 2>the people that he's working with in his clinic. These
<v Speaker 2>are people who you know, he's an aphrologist, so he's
<v Speaker 2>seeing people who have kidney disease because of diabetes or
<v Speaker 2>a combination of diabetes and hypertension, and so he is
<v Speaker 2>trying to help heal these people quickly. And these are
<v Speaker 2>people who have been metabolically sick for a long time, right,
<v Speaker 2>and so they may need a more aggressive approach. That's
<v Speaker 2>not true for every single person out there.
<v Speaker 1>Right exactly. And we just have to make sure that
<v Speaker 1>we are becoming our own study of one and responding
<v Speaker 1>to our results. If you're getting good results with what
<v Speaker 1>you're doing, that is a very good sign that it's
<v Speaker 1>working well for you. And we can get caught comparing
<v Speaker 1>ourselves to other people who need something different. Maybe someone
<v Speaker 1>needs more than us, maybe someone needs less than we do,
<v Speaker 1>And there's a lot to be said. We say it
<v Speaker 1>over and over again. Focusing on the foods that you're
<v Speaker 1>eating can make a huge difference.
<v Speaker 2>All right, well, our next question is from Flourishing in Florida. Hi,
<v Speaker 2>Jen and Sherry, thank you so much for your podcast.
<v Speaker 2>It helps me more than you'll ever know. I have
<v Speaker 2>been fasting for six weeks now with a window of
<v Speaker 2>sixteen eight. This is my second time trying intermittent fasting.
<v Speaker 2>The first time I really didn't have a lot of
<v Speaker 2>weight to lose, or, to be honest, any weight to lose.
<v Speaker 2>At that time, I was one hundred and fifty five
<v Speaker 2>pounds and I'm five foot six, But in my diet brain,
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to be skinnier, even though my smart BMI
<v Speaker 2>said I was in a healthy range. I do have
<v Speaker 2>a history of following every diet and healing protocol out
<v Speaker 2>there to help with some autoimmune problems I had at
<v Speaker 2>that time, I was convinced that I just needed to
<v Speaker 2>find the right protocol to heal, and that I couldn't
<v Speaker 2>heal until I found it. But then I learned about
<v Speaker 2>the mind body connection, and my relationship to food has
<v Speaker 2>forever changed. I have come so far and I've healed
<v Speaker 2>myself of the autoimmune diseases without a food protocol. I
<v Speaker 2>was diagnosed with chronic lime disease, epstein bar virus, and
<v Speaker 2>a mold infection due to mold exposure. I healed myself
<v Speaker 2>of all of these conditions before starting Intermann fasting the
<v Speaker 2>first time. I think all of the healing protocols and
<v Speaker 2>restricted diets put me in the wrong mindset when I
<v Speaker 2>did IF the first time. I think at that time,
<v Speaker 2>I kept restricting too much and I was suffering from
<v Speaker 2>leg pain and leg weakness that would only happen when
<v Speaker 2>I was fasting. Leg pain and leg weakness was one
<v Speaker 2>of the symptoms I had from lime, but it went
<v Speaker 2>away when I healed myself. The leg pain only came
<v Speaker 2>back when I was fasting. At that time, I was
<v Speaker 2>a yoga and zoomba instructor, teaching about sixteen classes a month.
<v Speaker 2>I kept trying to get to a five hour eating
<v Speaker 2>window because that's where I kept hearing everyone talk about
<v Speaker 2>where the magic happens. But I wasn't taking into account
<v Speaker 2>that I really didn't have much weight to lose for
<v Speaker 2>how active I was. I felt like I couldn't get
<v Speaker 2>enough nutrients in so I decided that fasting wasn't for me.
<v Speaker 2>Three years later, I'm thirty nine and I've gained twenty
<v Speaker 2>five pounds and now weigh one hundred and eighty pounds.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not teaching any more regularly, only subbing once in
<v Speaker 2>a while. I'm six weeks into IF, this time sticking
<v Speaker 2>to a sixteen to eight because of the fear of
<v Speaker 2>the leg pain coming back. The leg pain did come back,
<v Speaker 2>but I'm using a fasting approved electrolyte that I do
<v Speaker 2>take while fasting, and I feel like that does help
<v Speaker 2>the leg pain. My question is regarding fasting for twenty
<v Speaker 2>four hours. Two other fasting advocates recommend throwing in a
<v Speaker 2>couple twenty four hour fast within a month's time. They
<v Speaker 2>also recommend fasting according to your minstrel cycle, which I
<v Speaker 2>know after you had Doctor Tabitha Barber on that women
<v Speaker 2>can have a daily fasting window without affecting their hormones,
<v Speaker 2>and I do agree. But if I want to throw
<v Speaker 2>in a couple of twenty four hours fast or more
<v Speaker 2>for cellular cleanup, is that considered a down day? Do
<v Speaker 2>I have an up day after a twenty four hour
<v Speaker 2>fast or can I go right back into my sixteen
<v Speaker 2>to eight protocol. I want to experiment with twenty four
<v Speaker 2>hour fast for the healing benefits and wonder if that
<v Speaker 2>would be better than having a daily five hour eating
<v Speaker 2>window again, just trying to avoid the leg pain. Having
<v Speaker 2>the electrolytes while fasting and sticking to an eight hour
<v Speaker 2>eating window, my leg pain stays away. I do have
<v Speaker 2>more weight to lose this time, but I'm so nervous
<v Speaker 2>about the leg pain coming back. If I stick to
<v Speaker 2>an eight hour eating window and make good food choices,
<v Speaker 2>will the extra weight so come off without going to
<v Speaker 2>a five hour eating window. I did lose five pounds
<v Speaker 2>after my twenty eight date start, which I did using
<v Speaker 2>Gen's day by day book by eating mostly whole foods
<v Speaker 2>that worked for me and daily fasting of sixteen eights.
<v Speaker 2>I did throw in a couple of seven hour and
<v Speaker 2>six hour eating windows based off what was going on
<v Speaker 2>that day. And then I couldn't sit down to eat
<v Speaker 2>when I normally could. I chose to fast a little
<v Speaker 2>bit longer those days, even though I had some leg pain.
<v Speaker 2>With someone struggling with leg pain while fasting, would you
<v Speaker 2>not even recommend a twenty four hour fast? Do you
<v Speaker 2>have any thoughts on why someone would have leg pain
<v Speaker 2>only while they're fasting. My main goal is to live
<v Speaker 2>my healthiest self and to give my body rest to digest.
<v Speaker 2>But I really would like to lose the extra weight
<v Speaker 2>I've gained and be one hundred and fifty five pounds. Again.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you for all of the information, motivation, and practical
<v Speaker 2>tips that you share.
<v Speaker 1>All right, so this is really unusual, the whole idea
<v Speaker 1>of leg pain. And I'm not sure unless you're talking
<v Speaker 1>about muscle cramping. See that's the thing. If you're talking
<v Speaker 1>about muscle cramping, that's one thing. If it's leg pain,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what are your what's your?
<v Speaker 2>When I think leg pain, my immediate think is like
<v Speaker 2>like bone pain or shin splints or something I like
<v Speaker 2>to me, when I have muscle cramps from an electrolyte
<v Speaker 2>of balance, I wouldn't call that leg pain, right, I
<v Speaker 2>would say I'm having muscle spasm or muscle cramps. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and so I was kind of confused as well.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so I'm wondering if I mean, I'm just like
<v Speaker 1>going out on a limb here and you will talk
<v Speaker 1>I'm ramping in a minute. But if it's nerve pain,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. That's the first of all. I would
<v Speaker 1>want to figure out what this pain is, right, And
<v Speaker 1>it seems to me like you're gonna need to go
<v Speaker 1>to your doctor or somebody who understands how. You mentioned
<v Speaker 1>a lot of different diagnoses that you had in the past.
<v Speaker 1>That you had lime disease, you had epstein bar, you
<v Speaker 1>had a mold infection. So I'm going to go to
<v Speaker 1>that all being accurate, I'm gonna I'm gonna say, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>maybe you did have lime, epstein bar, and a mold issue.
<v Speaker 1>So here is a theory based on what you said
<v Speaker 1>about your past diagnoses. It is possible that when you
<v Speaker 1>are fasting, your body has some things stashed away in
<v Speaker 1>your fat cells, and so something related to your prior
<v Speaker 1>diagnoses is being released and causing the pain. That could
<v Speaker 1>be it. Because we do have detox types something correct, correct.
<v Speaker 1>So if you had that issue before and then it
<v Speaker 1>was kind of you said you had some healing protocols,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, I'm thinking of the word like remission,
<v Speaker 1>like you put it in remission or something right, and
<v Speaker 1>it's just been kind of in there. I know, some
<v Speaker 1>of these things kind of hot out. And I'm not
<v Speaker 1>an expert in lime or epstein bar or mold infections.
<v Speaker 2>That's a fantastic thought though, because I just looked at
<v Speaker 2>this and lime disease causing bacteria high survive within fat
<v Speaker 2>tissues and cells.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm not a doctor, but I've just heard that.
<v Speaker 1>And so if you are releasing fat from fat cells
<v Speaker 1>and other stuff that's getting released, because we know it
<v Speaker 1>happens with chemicals, we know things are in our fat
<v Speaker 1>cells that could be causing the PA. So you know,
<v Speaker 1>I know that in the healing world, and it's like
<v Speaker 1>a healing crisis kind of a thing. Like so maybe
<v Speaker 1>this is going to just happen with any way that
<v Speaker 1>you're losing fat, whether it's fasting or any fat loss
<v Speaker 1>protocol is going to lead to your body releasing these
<v Speaker 1>things and kind of stirring it up again. So you
<v Speaker 1>have to figure out, you know, the trade offs here,
<v Speaker 1>and I know when I wrote Cleanish, that's when I
<v Speaker 1>really did a deep dive into our bodies storing toxins
<v Speaker 1>into fat cells, and that's part of the process of
<v Speaker 1>clearing them out. And so you have like that that
<v Speaker 1>feeling the symptoms that come from your body clearing it out,
<v Speaker 1>but in the long run, you do want your body
<v Speaker 1>to clear them out. So again, I can't advise specifically
<v Speaker 1>on lime or epstein bar or mold infections, but if
<v Speaker 1>you had those symptoms from those those illnesses or those
<v Speaker 1>diagnoses and they're coming back with the fasting, it may
<v Speaker 1>be your body clearing something out. I can't say for sure,
<v Speaker 1>but I would talk to one of those doctors that
<v Speaker 1>worked with you before with some of those other illnesses
<v Speaker 1>and see if clearing it out is what you need
<v Speaker 1>or if you need to take a more cautious approach.
<v Speaker 1>As I know, there's some things we don't just want
<v Speaker 1>to set loose and set free, and there may be
<v Speaker 1>some some healing protocols that you want to follow along
<v Speaker 1>with it. So now the other thing that Shearon, I'm
<v Speaker 1>you know, the other issue might be muscle cramping pain.
<v Speaker 1>That's really the only kind of pain I've ever had
<v Speaker 1>in my legs is like muscle cramping. And for me,
<v Speaker 1>I've only had muscle cramping in my eating window if
<v Speaker 1>I haven't had enough fluid with my meals. Like if
<v Speaker 1>I know for a fact I've been kind of dehydrated
<v Speaker 1>for whatever reason, and then I eat a big meal
<v Speaker 1>and I don't drink a lot with it, then I
<v Speaker 1>might have some muscle cramping. But anytime I've ever had
<v Speaker 1>that weird muscle cramping, I just chug some water and
<v Speaker 1>it goes away so quickly. But you know, things like
<v Speaker 1>magnesium deficiencies, other vitamin and mineral deficiency these days can
<v Speaker 1>call it cramps.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I just looked up like what deficiencies can lead
<v Speaker 2>to leg pain, and like there's a whole list of
<v Speaker 2>things that came up from different electrolytes, two different vitamins
<v Speaker 2>like vitamin D, vitamin B one, vitamin B six, vitamin E.
<v Speaker 2>So I mean, and that's one of those things that
<v Speaker 2>it's best to test, don't guess, get some lab tests
<v Speaker 2>and see where you're at and see if you can
<v Speaker 2>figure out if there's some sort of nutrient deficiency that
<v Speaker 2>is causing it, or is it, like Jin said, a
<v Speaker 2>sort of a detox die off. Reaction.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's just really hard to know. Yeah, and oh,
<v Speaker 1>you talked also about twenty four hours fast, so I
<v Speaker 1>do want to get into that question fasting for twenty
<v Speaker 1>four hours. This can be really confusing for people because
<v Speaker 1>we know twenty four hours is a whole day, right,
<v Speaker 1>but most people are not doing their fasting, you know,
<v Speaker 1>from midnight to midnight over the course of the calendar day.
<v Speaker 1>Like you might stop eating at four pm and then
<v Speaker 1>fast until tomorrow at four pm, and that's been twenty
<v Speaker 1>four hours. But what matters whether it's a down day
<v Speaker 1>or not is what you do after that four pm
<v Speaker 1>in that example, So if you're someone who fasted from
<v Speaker 1>four pm to four pm, you did a twenty four
<v Speaker 1>hour fast. What you do after that determines whether it's
<v Speaker 1>a down day or not. So if you begin eating
<v Speaker 1>at four pm and you eat for five hours and
<v Speaker 1>you eat plenty of food, that is not a down day.
<v Speaker 1>A down day has two criteria. One of the other
<v Speaker 1>a down day is either a full fast that spans
<v Speaker 1>two overnight periods, so that would be more like thirty
<v Speaker 1>six hours probably give or take two sleeps. Think about
<v Speaker 1>it as two sleeps. You wake up, you don't eat,
<v Speaker 1>you go to bed, you wake up the next day.
<v Speaker 1>That's a down day. Or the other down day is
<v Speaker 1>if you only have like five hundred calories ish, five
<v Speaker 1>hundred ish. So in that prior example of the twenty
<v Speaker 1>four hour fas, if you fasted for twenty four hours
<v Speaker 1>and then you had five hundred calories and then you
<v Speaker 1>started fasting again, that would be a down day. So
<v Speaker 1>what you do after the twenty four hour fast before
<v Speaker 1>you go to bed determines whether it's a down day
<v Speaker 1>or not. So I hope that that helped with that.
<v Speaker 1>And so then the next day, if it was a
<v Speaker 1>down day, you would need to have an upday. If
<v Speaker 1>it wasn't, you wouldn't. So you know, if you want
<v Speaker 1>to throw in twenty four hour fast for some extra healing,
<v Speaker 1>if the fasting is healing, whatever it is, that would
<v Speaker 1>be obviously a logical thing to do, and then you know,
<v Speaker 1>make sure you either have enough to eat after that
<v Speaker 1>or if it's a down day, you would have an
<v Speaker 1>upday the next day. But maybe if your body is
<v Speaker 1>doing some sort of a detox kind of a thing,
<v Speaker 1>maybe you don't want to do twenty four hour fasts.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe you just want to settle into a nineteen five.
<v Speaker 1>But again, talk to your medical practitioners who have experience
<v Speaker 1>with the lime and the epstein bar. I really would,
<v Speaker 1>and the mold exposure, because there are people who understand that.
<v Speaker 1>They might say, oh gosh, you absolutely should not be
<v Speaker 1>fasting for twenty four hours. You need to be doing
<v Speaker 1>this sort of a thing, you know, to bond the toxins.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, I'm not an expert in these areas,
<v Speaker 1>but you don't want to have, you know, some sort
<v Speaker 1>of healing crisis that is not going to be good
<v Speaker 1>for you. Did you want to add anything to that?
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I would just say, go to Google. I
<v Speaker 2>simply questioned, I said, does fat burning increase leg pain
<v Speaker 2>for lime disease patients? And I got all sorts of
<v Speaker 2>information on that and why and it just like in
<v Speaker 2>the process of rapid fat metabolism, it can trigger rather
<v Speaker 2>than alleviate pain in the short term. And then they
<v Speaker 2>talk about Herzheimer reactions, which if you're a line person,
<v Speaker 2>I know you know what that is released to start
<v Speaker 2>toxins just lime related muscle sensitivity during muscular damage and
<v Speaker 2>repair cycles. Yeah, all right, So now we have a
<v Speaker 2>question from a listener, and this question is from SIUs
<v Speaker 2>in New Jersey. I'm fifty six, five foot two and
<v Speaker 2>a half, currently one hundred and forty one pounds a
<v Speaker 2>size six or eight. I take Estra dial for menopause symptoms.
<v Speaker 2>I've been aya for over a year. I started with
<v Speaker 2>sixteen eight in September of twenty twenty four for a
<v Speaker 2>few months now I do in nineteen five, typically three
<v Speaker 2>to eight or four to nine since May of twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty five. My lowest weight was one thirty seven in
<v Speaker 2>October of twenty twenty four. After being on a GLP
<v Speaker 2>one for three months. From May to August of twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty four, I weighed one sixty seven prior to starting that.
<v Speaker 2>My goal weight is one thirty. I have a smaller frame,
<v Speaker 2>but not tiny, thanks to a larger booty in thighs.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know why the weight is not budging or
<v Speaker 2>why I gained weight. I work out strength training two
<v Speaker 2>times a week. I'm up at four thirty Monday through Friday.
<v Speaker 2>Honestly don't sit and relax until about eight pm, sometimes nine,
<v Speaker 2>so it's not like I'm a slug. I walk two
<v Speaker 2>times a day on weekends as well. I don't always
<v Speaker 2>make the greatest food choices. I crave junk food. For
<v Speaker 2>the last four months, I can't seem to get enough.
<v Speaker 2>Will eating a couple small pieces of chocolate or one
<v Speaker 2>cookie a day, not really every day, maybe five times
<v Speaker 2>a week really cause the weight to not budge. I'm
<v Speaker 2>getting more frustrated by not losing. When my window is closed,
<v Speaker 2>I drink black coffee and water. I eat enough nutritious
<v Speaker 2>food when my window is open. I do have a
<v Speaker 2>gluten intolerance. I don't overeat. I cannot eat a lot
<v Speaker 2>of fiber, as it causes severe bloating and pain. The
<v Speaker 2>longer I do the if, the harder it is. I
<v Speaker 2>don't feel better. I'm constantly tired. My eyebags look worse.
<v Speaker 2>I sleep fine, but my body wakes me up after
<v Speaker 2>four to five good hours of sleep, no matter what
<v Speaker 2>time I go to bed. My HDL and LDL was
<v Speaker 2>finally normal in May of twenty twenty five. It was
<v Speaker 2>much higher prior to IF, but my most recent in November,
<v Speaker 2>my LDL was slightly elevated, again frustrating. My doctor ran
<v Speaker 2>vitamin B twelve blood levels because of fatigue, and it
<v Speaker 2>was oney eight hundred and fifty nine. That is double
<v Speaker 2>the normal high. All other blood work is normal. Besides
<v Speaker 2>I mentioned LDL, I do not take vitamin B supplements.
<v Speaker 2>The supplements I do take are calcium with vitamin D
<v Speaker 2>because of a dexic scan that showed osteopenia and my
<v Speaker 2>vitamin D was low. So here's the main question. Why
<v Speaker 2>can't I lose and will anything related to if such
<v Speaker 2>as cell turnover cause my vitamin B to be so high?
<v Speaker 2>I forgot to mention in twenty twenty two my vitamin
<v Speaker 2>B was normal. I don't have this checked annually. I
<v Speaker 2>have many more questions, but I figured this was enough
<v Speaker 2>for now. Thank you for your sport and all that
<v Speaker 2>both of you do.
<v Speaker 1>All right, sus that's a lot to unpack, but let's
<v Speaker 1>dig in just a little bit. First of all, it
<v Speaker 1>looks to me four pounds up from your lowest. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>you had been one sixty seven and then you did
<v Speaker 1>a GLP one got down to one thirty seven, and
<v Speaker 1>now you are at one for one. So four pounds
<v Speaker 1>up that's not a lot. That's good that you didn't
<v Speaker 1>regain everything that you lost from the GLP one. The
<v Speaker 1>history of GLP one, though, I think is important, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm glad that you mentioned it. Because we know GLP
<v Speaker 1>ones tend to lower muscle mass, lower metabolism, people will
<v Speaker 1>usually regain a lot more than you did. So let's
<v Speaker 1>first celebrate that you only have regained four pounds, because
<v Speaker 1>I think that is really something to celebrate. I know
<v Speaker 1>that you're frustrated. You also mentioned something about being on
<v Speaker 1>estra dial, and then you said you're sleeping well, But
<v Speaker 1>then you mentioned you're only sleeping four to five hours,
<v Speaker 1>and I would hesitate to think that only sleeping four
<v Speaker 1>hours is sleeping well. That seems like a really huge
<v Speaker 1>sleeping deficit to me, And I'm wondering if you're only
<v Speaker 1>taking extra that perhaps you need some progesterone as well,
<v Speaker 1>because progesterone can help with sleep, and also we can
<v Speaker 1>become estrogen dominant if we're only taking estrogen and not
<v Speaker 1>balancing it with progesterone. So I think you need to
<v Speaker 1>have a conversation with whoever is prescribing the estra dial
<v Speaker 1>if you're not already taking progesterone, about balancing with some
<v Speaker 1>progesterone and also focusing on your sleep, because we know
<v Speaker 1>that if you're only sleeping four or five hours a night.
<v Speaker 1>That is not probably not going to be sufficient amounts
<v Speaker 1>of sleep, and sleep is really important.
<v Speaker 2>Fun facts. Studies have shown that people are only sleeping
<v Speaker 2>seventy five to ninety percent of the time that they
<v Speaker 2>think they're sleeping in bed.
<v Speaker 1>Oh wow.
<v Speaker 2>So if you are allowing seven hours for sleep, if
<v Speaker 2>you get up at four thirty and you go to
<v Speaker 2>bed at nine thirty and you're only sleeping seventy five
<v Speaker 2>to ninety percent of that time, you're not getting enough sleep. Right.
<v Speaker 1>So if you think you're sleeping four to five hours exactly,
<v Speaker 1>you might be getting way less that. So that's really important.
<v Speaker 1>So one thing that's really important that you noted is
<v Speaker 1>that the longer you do if, the harder it is,
<v Speaker 1>and that you don't feel better. So again, I would
<v Speaker 1>go back to your doctor and see if your B
<v Speaker 1>twelve level is too high and you said that it's
<v Speaker 1>double what it should be. We know that low BE
<v Speaker 1>twelve can cause issues with fatigue and weakness and insomnia,
<v Speaker 1>but high BE twelve levels can also cause some of
<v Speaker 1>those issues. You need to go taught your doctor. If
<v Speaker 1>you're not taking BE twelve and your levels are just
<v Speaker 1>really really sky high, then you need to taught your
<v Speaker 1>doctor to see if you can figure out why, because
<v Speaker 1>high B twelve levels can be associated with some health
<v Speaker 1>conditions that you may need to see if you've got
<v Speaker 1>like some of them. Sounds scary, so I'm not going
<v Speaker 1>to read the list, but you need to figure out
<v Speaker 1>why is your B twelve so high? Do you need
<v Speaker 1>to balance your estrogen with some progesterones so you can
<v Speaker 1>really get a good night's And we really should not
<v Speaker 1>feel worse and worse over time, So if you're feeling
<v Speaker 1>worse and worse as time goes on, that's a sign
<v Speaker 1>that something is not working for you. No, I don't
<v Speaker 1>think one cookie couple days a week is going to
<v Speaker 1>be the issue, but I think there's definitely something going on,
<v Speaker 1>and it's more than just you know what your weight
<v Speaker 1>is doing. One other thing to keep in mind is
<v Speaker 1>that with your history of the GLP one, it's possible
<v Speaker 1>that ADF might be a good approach for you. And
<v Speaker 1>with down days and up days again, though, if you're
<v Speaker 1>not feeling good, I would try to figure out why
<v Speaker 1>you're not feeling good and see what that is, because
<v Speaker 1>if something's going on in your body and you're fighting
<v Speaker 1>against it, Until you get that corrected, you're going to
<v Speaker 1>continue to not feel good and to feel frustrated. There's
<v Speaker 1>so much more that goes on in our bodies that
<v Speaker 1>we just can't, you know, necessarily see what's going on
<v Speaker 1>in there. What would you like to add to that, Sherry.
<v Speaker 2>No, I think you really covered it. I think you
<v Speaker 2>really need to get to the bottom of why you
<v Speaker 2>have high B twelve levels, because if you're not supplementing
<v Speaker 2>B twelve, if you're not taking anything or drinking anything
<v Speaker 2>that has high B twelve in it, you need to
<v Speaker 2>figure out why that is so elevated. And maybe it
<v Speaker 2>was a lab error, maybe they didn't have their machine
<v Speaker 2>calibrated correctly that day. I would think that's something that
<v Speaker 2>they would notice because they should have had a lot
<v Speaker 2>of labs flagged in that day. But anything could happen,
<v Speaker 2>so that is definitely worth checking into further. Don't ignore that.
<v Speaker 2>I when I looked, there's no they have found no
<v Speaker 2>increase in B twelve after prolonged fasting, so we cannot
<v Speaker 2>put the blame on B twelve for that.
<v Speaker 1>There's somebody fasting on Yeah, it's not the fasting.
<v Speaker 2>It's not the fasting. Yep.
<v Speaker 1>All right, and again I think it's so important. You know,
<v Speaker 1>we've told you the last two questions. The answer is
<v Speaker 1>to go see your doctor, because this is not something
<v Speaker 1>just to feel like, oh, this is just normal, this
<v Speaker 1>is just fasting.
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes you really needs going on that you need to
<v Speaker 2>dig deeper into.
<v Speaker 1>You need to see your doctor, and you might need
<v Speaker 1>to see more than one doctor until you find one
<v Speaker 1>that gets it and it understands and you just have
<v Speaker 1>to be your biggest advocate, you know, have the determination
<v Speaker 1>to keep looking till you can find a doctor who
<v Speaker 1>gets it. And yeah, it's always easy.
<v Speaker 2>I say, if your doctor doesn't seem concerned about your
<v Speaker 2>be twelve or doesn't seem inclined to want to dig
<v Speaker 2>into it, ask for a referral to like a gastrenturologist
<v Speaker 2>or even a hematologist, somebody who can really dive deep
<v Speaker 2>and figure out, you know, what might be going on there.
<v Speaker 1>That's great advice. So before we get to our tweak
<v Speaker 1>of the week, I want to take a minute to
<v Speaker 1>talk about the fast Feast Repeat app and website. If
<v Speaker 1>you are struggling with food confusion or diet brain when
<v Speaker 1>it comes to what to eat within your eating window,
<v Speaker 1>or if you know you need to make changes, but
<v Speaker 1>you don't know where to begin. I'm really excited to
<v Speaker 1>talk about my eat like a grown up prog. It's
<v Speaker 1>a fifty two week learning journey that helps you finally
<v Speaker 1>build a peaceful, confident relationship with food without dieting, guilt,
<v Speaker 1>or overwhelm. And it's only available in the new Fast
<v Speaker 1>Feast Repeat app. So you can join me in the
<v Speaker 1>app for the grown up Year fifty two weeks to listen, play,
<v Speaker 1>and nourish. Each week, you'll watch a short video lesson
<v Speaker 1>and download a simple practical mission designed to help you
<v Speaker 1>listen to your body, play with your food in a
<v Speaker 1>joyful way, and nourish yourself with calm intention. You're going
<v Speaker 1>to learn how to move past emotional eating, you're going
<v Speaker 1>to understand your hunger signals, you're going to make meals
<v Speaker 1>that are deeply satisfying, and you'll fall back in love
<v Speaker 1>with real food, all while connecting with a community that's
<v Speaker 1>growing right alongside you in the app. So if you
<v Speaker 1>are ready for transformation that unfolds gently but meaningfully over time,
<v Speaker 1>this is where it begins. Go to app dot Fastfeastrepeat
<v Speaker 1>dot com to join us and at is apps filled
<v Speaker 1>with two p's app dot Fastfeastrepeat dot com, or you
<v Speaker 1>can find the fast Feast Repeat app in the app
<v Speaker 1>store that works with your phone, and along with the
<v Speaker 1>eat like a grown up fifty two week program, you'll
<v Speaker 1>find an ever growing library of intermittent fasting resources as well.
<v Speaker 1>So go to app dot Fastfeast repeat dot com to
<v Speaker 1>join us, or download the fast Feast Repeat app today.
<v Speaker 1>There is also a link in the show notes. And
<v Speaker 1>I am really really excited about the transformations I see
<v Speaker 1>happening already inside the Fasteast Repeat app. People who are saying,
<v Speaker 1>oh my gosh, I'm building balanced meals and I'm eating
<v Speaker 1>them and I'm satisfied for hours. This real food really
<v Speaker 1>is doing something. So I'm really really excited about that.
<v Speaker 1>So now it's time for our tweak of the week.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I always say tweak it till it's easy.
<v Speaker 1>But the tweak that works for me might not be
<v Speaker 1>the one that works for you. And that's why it's
<v Speaker 1>super helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting work for them. This from Ramona from New York.
<v Speaker 1>This is an idea for anybody who struggles with keeping
<v Speaker 1>the coffee milkshake concoctions out of their diet. Some apps
<v Speaker 1>send you push notifications, like dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, and
<v Speaker 1>sometimes that can trigger you to think about getting a
<v Speaker 1>latte when otherwise you never would have thought about going.
<v Speaker 1>So what I did for the beginning of the new
<v Speaker 1>year is turn off those notifications. You can do that
<v Speaker 1>with any app that tempts you to behavior as you
<v Speaker 1>would like to change. That could be a restaurant or
<v Speaker 1>a coffee shop app, but also a social media app.
<v Speaker 1>And if you wish to go even further eliminating the temptations,
<v Speaker 1>go right ahead and just delete the apps. Are the
<v Speaker 1>discounts or points really worth it when you're trying to
<v Speaker 1>eat or drink healthier, I don't think so. Wishing everyone
<v Speaker 1>a happy and healthy new year physically and mentally, that
<v Speaker 1>is a great tip.
<v Speaker 2>That's a great tip, And.
<v Speaker 1>It could be even something like I don't know door
<v Speaker 1>to ash or do those send you I don't have
<v Speaker 1>any of those, but I can imagine those sending you notifications.
<v Speaker 2>Teia a notification, yeah, like oh hey, don't you want
<v Speaker 2>to order something?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? Get rid of those, get them off your phone?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, all right. Well. We love to leave you
<v Speaker 2>in inspirational or motivational quotes, and this week we have
<v Speaker 2>a quote from Bell from the Adirondacks of New York.
<v Speaker 2>The quote is you must give up the life you
<v Speaker 2>planned in order to have the one waiting for you.
<v Speaker 2>It's from Joseph Campbell. She wrote, so in an if sense,
<v Speaker 2>one most likely needs to give up one's habituated eating
<v Speaker 2>lifestyle in order to get to the life of peace,
<v Speaker 2>health and happiness around food. I love that mint, You
<v Speaker 2>love that.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to
<v Speaker 1>have you join us in the Delay don Tonight community,
<v Speaker 1>where you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus
<v Speaker 1>the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere.
<v Speaker 1>Go to Jen Stevens dot com slash community to join us.
<v Speaker 3>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 3>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 3>a five star review that helps new listeners find the
<v Speaker 3>show and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
<v Speaker 1>or anything else you want us to share on the podcast.
<v Speaker 1>Go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com, slash submit and
<v Speaker 1>then listen each week to see if we share your
<v Speaker 1>submission or answer your question until next week.
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for listening.
<v Speaker 1>This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.